We moved the trailer near the shop today to get it closer to the welding equipment. Nothing major going on today, just measuring and trying to get a materials list together. My dad is going to go to a new metal supplier tomorrow with the neighbor for the neighbors metal project. Dad will price out the 2x2x3/16" angle iron I need for the additional bracing. Hopefully they have good pricing there.

I was also prepping an old water heater for my solar batch water heater project. I stripped the outside metal off of it and also the insulation under that. I still need to sand it a little and paint it flat black. This is more of a side project I'm doing while I have a little down time on the Tiny House trailer. I have always wanted to make a solar batch water heater.

This morning I removed the two room extenders, in RV terms they are called slide outs. These are retractable frame assemblies that allow a room to extend out about 3 1/2' allowing for extra interior square footage. They are used in RV and travel trailers but they are not used in Tiny Houses, at least I've never seen them integrated in a Tiny House. We're gonna keep our Tiny House traditional and NOT keep any slide outs. I told my mom this at least half a dozen times and she just doesn't understand it. I told her she could have them and she could install them on her house. And she still didn't get it. At least she quit bugging me about the stinking slide outs!

Tomorrow my dad and I will be taking measurements and figuring out how much steel we will need to reinforce the trailer frame. Since the load of the house will be on the perimeter, we will need to beef that up a bit and also extend it out a little to maximize our house width. We will need to make a trip to the metal store and load up on some angle iron. We will be doing some welding, fabricating knee bracing and other structural supports. I am excited to do some welding. Welding is building. Demolition is done :)

I'm selling all the stuff from the travel trailer that I don't need on Craigslist. These slide outs are listed for $150.

I ripped off the decking yesterday, day 21, and I got down to the bare frame. It's in solid condition and has only minor surface rust. My dad is an API, American Petroleum Institute, inspector and is quite an expert in metal corrosion and welds and metal fatigue. He says the frame is structurally sound. You never really know what you are getting whenever you buy something like this used and I'm thankful to get his expert assessment. Anyways, it's great to get down to the frame. Next step will be taking a wire wheel to all the flaky paint surfaces and then prime and paint the entire frame. We live somewhat near the coast and it's almost always humid here in coastal southeast Texas. It would be prudent to paint any exposed metal to prevent any future corrosion. Oh yeah and we will also assess the frame for any rigidity issues. This frame is kinda more flexible and twisty than I like. We will be welding in some reinforcements to prevent the flexing and twisting. We will also be welding on support members to mount the perimeter of the framing on. This will allow us to build to the 8'6" maximum legal width.

Yes, bare frame!

The travel trailer mfg. only used 5/8" plywood for the decking! Surprising, the original floor was not bouncy or soft feeling. I will be recycling that plywood to make my solar batch hot water heater. Anything left over will be used for hurricane window protection.

The black tarp looking thing on the ground was the bottom lining of the travel trailer. It's kind of like a synthetic burlap type of material. It's super tough and waterproof. It was so water proof that it held the water that leaked in through the siding and flooring, trapping all that water onto the fiberglass wool floor insulation, which made a soggy mess.

Straight trailer :) I still have to dismantle the slide out mechanisms. The slide outs had electric motors that I will try to sell on eBay.

It was a hot bugger today and I'm sure my neck is more tan than the rest of me. I cleared the deck and it's ready to be removed. I made all the cuts that need to be made and tomorrow I will remove the decking. There should be no more wood on the trailer tomorrow. Hooray!

Below I have posted some before and after pictures of the demolition process.

I took a few days off of the travel trailer demolition to do some other things that needed attention. I got back at it today and hit it pretty hard. I was able to remove and cut to manageable pieces the slide out decks. They were super heavy due to the 3 sheets of plywood each deck was constructed of. Those suckers were 1-1/2" thick! Dad helped me roll up all the carpet and then haul the trash trailer to the dump. Yaaaaa! We got rid of a trailer load of crap for FREE! I feel a certain amount of satisfaction when get rid of a bunch of trash. I really helps me to feel like there is progress and I am moving forward. I was able to pry off the first section of floor decking and see how it was constructed. The whole underside of the travel trailer was wrapped in a type of weather proof fabric, hiding the beams and seams. Knowing how the flooring is constructed and installed is very helpful when you need to remove it. Tomorrow should be a productive day as well. I hope to remove all of the decking and also haul a bunch of trash to the curb for the trash man. I posted some pics below.

Two weeks have passed and with a one man demolition team, progress takes time. I started loading the trash trailer today. Yeah I know it's hard to tell which is which. LOL. But I can tell there is actually progress taking place. I was able to take 4 tractor loads of debris to the burn pile. It takes time to separate stuff that I want to burn and the stuff that I don't want to burn. The small stuff that I don't want to burn will be taken out in the regular trash cans. The bigger things will be loaded on the trash trailer and hauled to the dump. I was also able to tear down the second slide out and even remove the floor decking. I will continue demolition tomorrow.

Even though progress is not lightning quick, I am happy that there is visible progress and I know it will continue at a steady pace. I am still very enthusiastic about the Tiny House build :)

The slide out has been torn down and the trash trailer (in the background) is getting loaded.

No major changes today. Just hauled 3 trashcans of debris to the curb. In the afternoon I hauled 3 tractor loads of wood to the burn pile in the back of the property. It's mostly just framing lumber and some plywood. There is so much plastic and vinyl built into a travel trailer. I refuse to burn that kind of stuff. I really hope to build our Tiny House way more greener than this old travel trailer. Tomorrow is a surf day and then a birthday party for one of my best friend's son. So not too much will happen to the trailer I'm sure.

Just more of the same, demolition. This is only day 11 and just to let you know, I don't spend more than 4 hours or so a day on it at the moment. It's pretty much been a 1 man show. I do get help from dad occasionally but he has his projects to work on too. I go at my own pace and I try not to get stressed out about anything. Tomorrow I'll load up the trash cans again and get rid of some junk. It may not look like a whole lot of progress but I'm chipping away at it and there is definitely light at the end of the demolition tunnel.

Here is a little video of me on the tractor pulling down the wall that fell against the shed.

A certain someone was excited to smash things up with his tractor. You don't get to do that kind of thing very often. Anyways, my dad had a good time smashing the travel trailer :)

I haven't decided if this made demolition easier and faster or slower and more messy. Maybe it's a combination of faster but more messy. I suppose I will find out tomorrow when I pick up all the debris.

It was a really beautiful day here in Galveston County Texas! It was unseasonably cool, 72 degrees in May, and mild with low humidity and a nice breeze all day. Man, you couldn't ask for better weather.

I got up this morning and started the day off filling trash cans with small demolition debris. I hauled it to the curb for the trash dudes to take away. I also removed all the fiberglass insulation on the exterior walls and put them in trash bags and set them next to the curb too. All the trash was gone by 9:00am. It was cool to see things go away.

Speaking of making things go away, I hauled a trailer load of aluminum siding and tracks to the local recycle yard. The sign out in front says "AL $.47". So I assumed I was going to get $.47 per pound of aluminum. Well I had 327 pounds of aluminum and they gave me $71.94 !!! WTF! The receipt said I got only $.22 per pound for "irony aluminum sheet". I think I just got ripped off! OK well I suppose I learned a lesson from that recycle yard. I'll never go there again!

Later in the afternoon I was able to pull out all the copper wire from the travel trailer. Now I have a trash can full of copper wire to recycle. I will NOT be going to the same recycle yard this next go round.

I was also going to tear a few walls down before dinner. It was fun to smash things and bust walls. I will have pull the travel trailer forward tomorrow so I don't accidentally damage my parent's boat while busting the trailer apart. I think I will use their tractor to help push the walls over. That should be fun :)

Today was semi-productive. I was able to remove all the aluminum from the travel trailer. YAAAAA! Now I can bring the aluminum to the scrap yard for recycling. That will free up the utility trailer for other debris during demolition. I was going to get a roll-off dumpster container for construction but it was like $450! I really don't want to spend that kind of money on trash removal.

I was hoping to remove all the insulation today but I had to stop short to play with Gabby when she got home from school and also take Grandma to the airport so she could go back home to beautiful San Diego. I will continue removing all the fiberglass insulation from the sides. I wish I could work on it more today but I'm a little tired and I just took a shower. I don't want to get all dirty again today. There is always tomorrow.

I'll be happy when I get this thing stripped to the bare trailer frame.

It's been a busy weekend. My brother-in-law turned 50, my mother-in-law is still in town visiting, and it's Mother's Day on Sunday. I probably won't get much if any work done today being that it's Mother's Day. But I was able to get a little work done yesterday, day 6. I took off a bunch of pink fiberglass insulation on one side. I only got down what I could reach. I can't get the stuff at the top yet because I have to remove the top rail of aluminum. That will be a little more involved so I will do that in a couple days. I also removed the aluminum siding from the slide out and the top front of the trailer. I removed much of the exposed wiring and consolidated the aluminum from other parts of the travel trailer and loaded them onto the trailer for the recycle yard.

As I mentioned previously, the travel trailer's wood is really rotten. The whole roof is caving in now. It appears that the roof was nothing but OSB plywood with a thin roof coating on it. The whole entire roof is water damaged and rotten. I don't need any of the actual structure but it makes it demo a little more challenging.

I can't wait to get this trailer down to the frame and get to some real construction!

Yesterday was day 5. We took a day off of working on the trailer. Fridays are a busy day here at home. However, I did manage to go "workout". My workout consists of surfing. I'm sorry if your workouts are not quite as fun as mine :p After surfing I help Jodie in the kitchen. Jodie is a classically trained chef and makes the most delicious AND healthy food. She has focused her skills on making organic foods and incorporating locally grown ingredients into them. She sells her goodies at the local co-op where she does quite well.

Oh yeah, I did get rid of the toilet that was pulled from the trailer. I posted it on Craigslist as a free toilet to a good home. I got a text from a guy who wanted it so I told him to come and get it. He was building an outdoor bathroom for his beach house. I'm really glad that someone could use it and it doesn't go to a landfill.

It was a humid day today with sporadic rain sprinkles. I was still able to remove half of the aluminum siding. I will be bringing all the aluminum to the recycling center. Hopefully I can get some decent cash back to put into the Tiny House build. I'm hoping I get around $200 back. I'm an optimist. LOL BTW, I sold two windows today for $20 each. Money for the build. Woo Hoo!

The Supervisor is here! Everyone look busy!

You can really see how bad the water damage is. The wood framing is completely rotten through and through.

Cash back! Aluminum is currently around $.47 per pound here in Galveston County, Texas.

Things to sell on Craigslist. The fridge works fine. My mom wants it to keep her beer in. LOL!

We mulled over the idea of building a trailer frame from the ground up. My dad, Wayne, is an expert welder and can pretty much build anything out of metal. As he puts it, "I can weld anything from a broken heart to the crack of dawn". HAHAHA! As it turns out, we couldn't build a trailer frame for less than what we paid for our trailer. It would cost over $2000 to build a trailer from scratch. The main expenses would be the axles, suspension and the tires and wheels. So when we bought our travel trailer, we bought it only for the frame. We didn't want any of the other things on the trailer. We will try to recycle as scrap or sell off anything of value that wasn't part of the trailer frame. Since we only needed the trailer frame for our Tiny House, we will demolish everything on the frame. We are so happy to have found our trailer for such a good price.

Here are some pictures from day 2 and day 3. We have removed all the windows, doors, refrigerator, washer and dryer, plumbing fixtures, couch, air conditioner, water heater, power inverter, and roll out awning. Tomorrow we will strip off the aluminum siding and hopefully start chopping down the walls.

This was a 1994 Sportsman travel trailer. It's incredible how rotten and dilapidated it had gotten in only 20 years. It was completely neglected. Oh well the trailer frame is all I need.

Have you ever seen a "tiny house" on wheels? No, I'm not talking about an mobile home or an RV or a travel trailer. I'm talking about a little house built on a trailer. They are built like a regular house with 2x4's and wood construction. They look like a cute little cabin on wheels. My wife and I have decided to build a Tiny House for our little family. We have been looking for a trailer long enough and inexpensive enough for a couple of months. We finally found one that we liked. We found a suitable one but it was a travel trailer. We will demo it and strip it down to the frame. We found it on Craigslist, of course, and we brought my dad to come and help us check it out. My dad has a lot of experience with trailers and such, so he was an invaluable help. We checked out the trailer and my dad, Wayne, made an offer for the trailer. The asking price was $2500 and Wayne offered $1500 on our behalf. The owner of the trailer thought about it for what seemed like a long time then he finally said, "ok". Wayne instantly saved us $1000! Hand shakes were in order and we made arrangements to pay for it and pick it up the next day. We picked it up on Cinco de Mayo! Here are some pictures of it.